Activity from TheMoviegoer§↻

How are you going with Mark? I am up to chapter 10. How has it changed your life?

Chapter 10?!?!?!?! That is awesome, janet23! Keep up the good work!

How am I going? Well, my goal is to memorize Mark 100% (based on the website's measure). There are lots of reasons for memorizing Mark, but I'll give a brief accounting:

1. Years ago, I was teaching a Sunday School class on Mark. As I read commentaries in preparation and would read deeper and deeper into a give chapter of the commentary, the only reference they would give when discussing a section was the verse. Sometimes I would get lost, have to flip back to the scripture section, read it and then read the writer's analysis. Well, I often felt frustrated because I just wished I knew the material well enough to keep reading analysis.

2. I saw a video of a pastor (or writer, academic type) who instead of preaching to a group, basically shared a fully memorized I Corinthians as a sermon. He set it up well, saying this is how the letters were originally distributed, but the effect of hearing I Corinthians preached or delivered as Paul may have done it was amazing.

3. I've never been real strong at devotions. Don't get me wrong, I pray a lot, but sitting down to "do" devotions was always a car crash for me. Too much awareness of the activity always led to an aversion of some sort. Teaching Sunday School worked way better. I love studying scripture, thinking through the implications of the Gospel, relating the word to my life and others, etc. Anyway, after teaching Mark, I felt like I was just scratching the surface in terms of knowing and appreciating the Gospel. So, after seeing the guy do this with I Corinthians I decided to memorize Mark. Then I found this site.

How has it changed my life? I don't know how to quantify life change, but I can certainly attest to opening the scripture more completely for me. It may be kind of obvious to everyone, but I didn't realize quite how much memorizing would become a tool for my devotional life. Mark has multiple controversial and difficult passages, and memorizing them has forced me to explore them more fully which has lead to so much prayer, discussion with family and friends, and mostly a love for Jesus. But to give you a few specifics examples that you might recognize...

"Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin."

"Who are my mother and my brothers? And looking about at those who sat around him he said, "for whoever does the will of god, he is my bother and sister and mother."

And they asked him privately, "why could we not cast it out?" And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer."

And there are many other difficult passages. I guess I would say that I am enjoying having to work through difficult things with the full reliance that the real subject of the book is the answer.

Hope this helps!

thanks for sharing your journey. I started on the site just learning individual verses then i changed to mostly learning books, I have been truly blessed by learning God's Word.

Very good thoughts, Moviegoer. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks, everyone! janet23, I am glad you're joining me on Mark. Be strong and keep going. I will greet you when you get to the end. Secondus, thanks for the kind words. Always good to hear from the faithful!

This is really inspiring to read, thank you especially, Moviegoer, for sharing. Godbless you guys!

Thanks, Carla_Bryant! You all are inspiring too!

Thanks for sharing. Really inspiring 👍 Stay blessed.

Hi, JDJDJD! Good to see your name pop up in the thread! Happy to share!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Moviegoer. I have found exactly the same - memorising scripture using this site has become a great tool for daily devotion each morning. I started learning verses, then I switched to learning chapters. And thanks for your comments about difficult passages too. I agree that the process of slowing down to memorise gives more opportunity to explore these passages with God.

Hi, PeterP! YESSSSS! For me, the tendency was to avoid difficult issues or distill them into something manageable or agreeable from my perspective. Wrestling with them, affirming them through memorization has been much better for me. I don't want to suggest that I've figure them all out (I haven't at all), but there is comfort in not hiding from either the obvious truths or the more difficult ones because the author of all Truth is right there saying that He loves you no matter what - cause He brings that right along with the things we find difficult.